Saturday, February 22, 2014

2014 has already been a busy year putting together the last
details of our new graphic novel about Owney, the postal dog. Now, it has
finally arrived! Artist David Montgomery and I come full circle in our own
journey to bring to life the adventures of this much-admired pooch.

This coming week marks the release of “The Secret
Around-the-World Adventures of Owney the Postal Dog” to all our Kickstarter
backers. It’s a great moment for us, as we are tremendously excited to share
this book with the people who helped us make it happen. It all started on
October 4th 2012, when we launched our first campaign on
Kickstarter. Today, Kickstarter has become the household name for
crowdfunding, having helped bring more than 133,000 creative projects to life
already. We’re proud to have made one of those projects!

Despite the boon that Kickstarter was for us, allowing us to
network and to reach out directly to readers who believed in the project, David
and I soon realized that with crowdfunding, there was much to learn and a short
time period to learn it; lessons and challenges cropped up with each new
phase of the project. Below are just a few of the things we learned from our
Kickstarter/self-publishing experience:

1- Running a Kickstarter campaign takes stamina.

From the moment you hit the launch button until the last
seconds of your campaign, your heart and mind will be fixated on your Kickstarter
counter. We ran our campaign for 30 days, which is what Kickstarter recommends
(“choosing a shorter duration better positions a project for success,”
according to their instructions - as shown in the graph below), and we worked hard each and every one of
those days to get the word out, to network with people who might be interested
in the project, to create new campaign rewards as the days went on and, of
course, to get started on the book itself. Even before the launch, there is
significant prep for the campaign (creating a video, planning rewards, etc.)
and afterwards, there is still much to do and consider (ordering of items and
services, delivery).

When we decided to take our project to Kickstarter, our
knowledge of crowdfunding was minimal. Luckily, David was working with Jamey
Stegmaier - creator of Stonemaier Games - on a board game called
Viticulture. Besides being a Kickstarter success story, Jamey also
writes a very informative blog where he lists the many lessons he has
learned from Kickstarter. We learned a lot from Jamey and his impressive track
record in running successful campaigns for his games. If you don’t know
anyone who has done a Kickstarter campaign (though there is an increasingly
great chance you do know someone!), reach out to others through the
Kickstarter site: Kickstarter is a vibrant community of people with creative
ideas like you who are usually friendly and more than happy to help out.

3 -Allow more time for delivery.

The hardest lesson we had to learn was when it became
painfully obvious that our initial estimate for the book being completed within
6 months was unrealistic. The book turned out to be 142 pages (from the
110 we had first projected), all drawn and inked by David. In hindsight, it was
actually quite a feat to finish production in a year. We will be forever
indebted to our Kickstarter supporters and grateful for their patience and
understanding. We can only hope that they find the end product will have
justified their wait.

4 - No matter how much you prepare, unexpected problems will
appear.

We have not discussed this until now because we didn’t want
to detract from the book itself, but we made an unfortunate mistake when we
hired our first colorist, who we prepaid from our Kickstarter funds; in our
inexperience and eagerness to get started, we did not do enough investigating
to determine if this person could handle the large amount of work that lay
ahead; he couldn't, and we ended up losing some money and a lot of time.
Fortunately, through a friend in common, we got in touch with Toronto colorist
Dan McLaren, who stepped up to the plate by delivering outstanding art and ideas
on a fast and consistent basis. To complete the team in Toronto, we contacted
experienced letterer Chris McQuaid, who brought a crisp but old-fashioned style
to captions and balloons that complemented the art perfectly. In the end, the
project was the better for it, but a lesson learned was to know who you're
working with and to have all expectations spelled out clearly and in writing!

5 - When the campaign is finshed the work really begins.

Kickstarter is only the beginning. Now that the book is
ready, its life can begin. The gestation period is over and we have this
newborn book in our hands; now we’re looking for a home for it where it can
grow to its full potential. As we embark on this next stage, we feel very
grateful to all who believed in our project and excited to present Owney to a
whole new audience (like any proud parent, we're excited to show off our baby
to everyone!). It seems our trip with Owney is just beginning, and we
can't wait to see where it takes us!

1 comments:

What a wonderful story of Owney the Postal Dog. A great read for kids and adults alike. For young children it makes a terrific bedtime story as each place Owney visits is in a separate chapter.... so great stories for bedtime reading for the kids. My favourite was Owney was lost in the dessert but of course he was found by someone and escaped..... stories real or imagined they are just lovely stories ... I have no doubt this comic type book will be a great success with young audiences.... no longer young I thoroughly enjoyed it.Kudos to David and Marcelo a great job and a great read.Congratulations,Agnes